Ailing Horns know hopes are still high

Texas accepts that the lofty outside expectations are warranted. Make two straight trips to the Elite Eight and people start to expect it. Tack on the program’s first Big 12 regular-season title in 19 years and, well, everyone starts itching for even more.

“It is fair,” Texas sophomore point guard Rori Harmon said. “You have done it once you can do it again. There’s not really a bunch of excuses that we can give, even though there probably are some. We just have to do what we can do and play with who we got and give it our all and just, you know, any game could be your last game. And that’s how we should play.”

Fourth-seeded Texas (25-9) begins its NCAA tournament with a first-round matchup against No. 13 seed East Carolina (23-9) at the Moody Center in Austin. If the Longhorns win, they’ll face either No. 5 seed Louisville or No. 12 seed Drake on Monday.

Texas has been an injury-ravaged outfit all season long. That’s what Harmon alluded to when she mentioned excuses. She missed five games to start the season. Sophomore forward Aaliyah Moore went down with a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament tear. Key backup center Taylor Jones missed nine games with a lower body injury.

And though third-year coach Vic Schaefer has lamented the Longhorns’ injury misfortune at times, the hard-driving coach knows Texas’ opponents won’t shed any tears.

Make no mistake, Texas could really use the play-making and shooting of graduate guard Sonya Morris (quadriceps) after its struggles throughout last week’s Big 12 tournament. But if she misses her 11th straight game, Harmon and Co. will at least be used to playing without the All-Big East DePaul transfer.

“We talked about how when you lose such a special player like Sonya, it’s not like one person can fill that role immediately, it’s everyone needs to step up,” junior guard Shay Holle said. “We kind of took it as a team effort, everyone stepping up in their own way.”

As for East Carolina, the Pirates have won nine of 10 games entering the NCAA tournament. The American Athletic Conference tournament champions play some of the best on-ball defense in the nation, ranking third in steals (13.2) and 22nd in points allowed (56.0) per game.

Senior guard Danae McNeal took home the AAC’s defensive player of the year and most improved player awards, and newcomer Amiya Joyner earned freshman of the year honors.

But Texas has been pretty special these past two years with Schaefer at the helm. And regardless of who’s on the floor Saturday night, the Longhorns don’t expect this season to end anytime soon.

“Anything can happen in March,” Holle said. “But I think those expectations are very valid. We have the pieces.”